Two muralists completed their work in Nelson this past week as part of the upcoming Nelson International Mural Festival.
Anais Lera's mural on the Medical Associates building at 806 Vernon St. is entitled Trillium Symphony, inspired by a B.C. native flower.
"It's a very wavy design, showing something that is really alive. For the colours I wanted to choose something that pops out of the wall, with a psychedelic touch."
Lera moved from her home country of France to Vancouver four years ago, and has since worked full time as a muralist and illustrator in Canada.
She said she likes to mix reality and the imagination.
"To me, being an artist is not copying what you see, but it is making what you would like to see. What I like about murals is you are making something you would like to see, and making it big scale. And it is not only for you – it becomes part of the city, part of the building."
She likened painting the mural to giving birth.
"It's like ten days labour when you are suffering with the heat, the rain, the wind, sometimes the paint, but when you are done there is such a huge reward and satisfaction, about yourself, about people really enjoying it. But now it doesn't belong to me any more. That's it. Now I am just looking for the next one."
Lidia Cao travelled to Nelson from her home in Galicia in northern Spain to paint her mural entitled Mountain Soul on the back of the Nelson and District Community Complex.
Cao is an experienced and well-travelled muralist who has worked in many parts of the world. She completed her Nelson work in six days.
She said she created Mountain Soul in homage to Kootenay Lake, inspired by the Selkirk Mountains, with "blue herons as a symbol of peace and connection with other worlds.
"It's a journey from within our being, appreciating the wonders that the world gives us, and brings us peace, a place where we feel safe and where we love to be."
Cao said the researched the Nelson area and came up with the design before she arrived here. She found that Nelson and her home town in Spain are similar, both embedded in nature and mountains.
The face of the person in the mural, she said is "like me, a bit, and it is about myself and my love of nature, both here and in my home town."
The seventh annual Nelson International Mural Festival runs Aug. 9 to 11 with a variety of events across the city.